"The Best Days of Our Lives"

"The Best Days of Our Lives"

'The Best Days of Our Lives' The quintessential coming-home movie, this beautifully wrought 1946 drama directed by William Wyler won numerous Oscars including best film, director, actor (Fredric March) and supporting actor (Harold Russell). Best Years focuses on three different men returning to civilian life. March is a middle-aged well-established banker with a wife (Myrna Loy) and two children; Dana Andrews is an Air Force captain who was a soda jerk before the war; and Russell is a young man from a close-knit family who lost both hands during the war. Russell was an Army instructor training with the U.S. 13th Airborne Division stateside in 1944 when a defective fuse he was handling while making a training film exploded. He was given two hooks to replace his destroyed hands. While attending Boston University after his recovery, he was featured in an Army film called Diary of a Sergeant about the rehabilitation of war veterans. Wyler saw the movie and cast him in Best Years." Russell became the only performer to receive two Oscars for the same role: he won best supporting actor and a special Oscar for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans. But in 1992, Russell sold one of his Oscars to a private collector in order to pay for his wifes medical bills.

'The Best Days of Our Lives' The quintessential coming-home movie, this beautifully wrought 1946 drama directed by William Wyler won numerous Oscars including best film, director, actor (Fredric March) and supporting actor (Harold Russell). Best Years focuses on three different men returning to civilian life. March is a middle-aged well-established banker with a wife (Myrna Loy) and two children; Dana Andrews is an Air Force captain who was a soda jerk before the war; and Russell is a young man from a close-knit family who lost both hands during the war. Russell was an Army instructor training with the U.S. 13th Airborne Division stateside in 1944 when a defective fuse he was handling while making a training film exploded. He was given two hooks to replace his destroyed hands. While attending Boston University after his recovery, he was featured in an Army film called Diary of a Sergeant about the rehabilitation of war veterans. Wyler saw the movie and cast him in Best Years." Russell became the only performer to receive two Oscars for the same role: he won best supporting actor and a special Oscar for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans. But in 1992, Russell sold one of his Oscars to a private collector in order to pay for his wifes medical bills.

'The Best Days of Our Lives' The quintessential coming-home movie, this beautifully wrought 1946 drama directed by William Wyler won numerous Oscars including best film, director, actor (Fredric March) and supporting actor (Harold Russell). Best Years focuses on three different men returning to civilian life. March is a middle-aged well-established banker with a wife (Myrna Loy) and two children; Dana Andrews is an Air Force captain who was a soda jerk before the war; and Russell is a young man from a close-knit family who lost both hands during the war. Russell was an Army instructor training with the U.S. 13th Airborne Division stateside in 1944 when a defective fuse he was handling while making a training film exploded. He was given two hooks to replace his destroyed hands. While attending Boston University after his recovery, he was featured in an Army film called Diary of a Sergeant about the rehabilitation of war veterans. Wyler saw the movie and cast him in Best Years." Russell became the only performer to receive two Oscars for the same role: he won best supporting actor and a special Oscar for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans. But in 1992, Russell sold one of his Oscars to a private collector in order to pay for his wifes medical bills.